In reference to the state of Michigan appointing an emergency manager to replace the mayor and his staff: The Emergency manager has only created a greater problem within the city of Flint.

With unemployment being rampant among the residents of the city, I find it difficult to understand how raising the water and sewage bills, eliminating the majority of law enforcement and fire personnel and introducing ways to try and suck money from an already impoverished community, is helping.

In the past two years the average water and sewer bill for a household of one has increased from $41 a month to $90 a month but the average income has not increased. An extra $66 per parcel will be included on city taxes this year for "street light assessment." Still, average income has not increased.

I do not think the emergency manager has even considered the fact that street lights only illuminate the intersections of most streets. Thus, crime still goes unchecked because drug dealers have decided to do their deals in the middle of the block.

This leads me to the lack of law enforcement and fire prevention personnel. People have been feeling unsafe in their neighborhoods for years but are now feeling unsafe in their own homes.

This is causing the citizens of Flint to seek to escape from the city. If a mass exodus from the city occurs, the city will no longer have this additional income.

This leads me into a complaint which I am sure many other residents have. A proposed budget is said to reduce expenditures without laying off any police or firefighters. In truth, there are not many left to lay off. The lack of protection in Flint is ridiculous. Some incidents may never receive a response from police.

Sometimes a report to police may never be answered. Hoodlums have broken windows out of houses in broad daylight with citizens following them for blocks (while talking on the phone with police) and still no response has come.

An elderly woman of 87 was dragged from her car into her own home and raped, in broad daylight. Why is this possible? Maybe it is because the criminal element accepts the fact that they can get away with crime.

They realize that by the time the police arrive, they can be just another passerby or be gone from the scene entirely.

Even as property values decrease, residents fear property tax increases as an effort to balance the city’s budget. The people living in poverty in Flint have begun to lose hope for the future. Perhaps by developing a self-sustaining life style, the residents of Flint will be able to continue to live in this city.

Whether an emergency manager continues to control our city or if the mayor is placed back in control, our hope for the future is that Flint will be able to pull itself out of the state of emergency and into a state of stability.